There goes our hopelessly biased, flaming “liberal media” again… today describing Harper’s bloated cabinet as one “that reflects a mature prime minister skillfully balancing talent, experience, potential and political reality with only a soupçon of stiff-backed willfulness to remind us of his earlier years.”

Wow. That’s harsh. Especially describing them as “unlikely to embarrass Harper.” Why didn’t Ibbitson describe them as “fantastically awesome” or “superbly well qualified”? The liberal media bias is just unrelentingly hostile, isn’t it?

I mean, take Ed Fast, for example, the Conservative MP from Abbotsford who’s now heading up the International Trade portfolio. After all, he’s a lawyer who spent most of his career on a local school board, before serving on the City Council for almost a decade. Not to mention the fact he’s one quarter of gospel group Father’s Daughter, made up of Fast (on piano) and his three daughters, Sonja, Emily, and Rachel.

Who better to head up the negotiations of a thoroughly comprehensive free trade agreement with the European Union, development of the emerging North American Security Perimeter that Harper committed to back in February, and other such matters, than a guy who’s previous experience was being chair of the Parks, Recreation and Culture Commission for a city of 138,000 people? Why was there no mention in the biased liberal media of his outstanding qualifications for the position or even the fact that some time back he authored an anti child pornography bill? Because, you know, that would be totally relevant to his demonstrable track record of expertise concerning international trade affairs.

Really? That’s your complaint? The Globe and Mail was “too nice”? What do you want, a constant bitchfest from our national newspapers? Sometimes, you know, people agree with what Harper is doing. I know that’s a foreign concept at “Red Tory”, but the days are gone where “soldiers will be in our streets” should Harper form a majority.

Furthermore, you take issue with the fact that a Minister is in a church group? But if he were a former member of the Communist Party, that would be okay (like Duceppe and Dion). A little shallow, no?

The cabinet flies in the face of whatever principles you clowns claim to continue to hold. It represents excess, incompetence, parochialism, and a complete lack of concern for what Ministers are actually responsible for. Not only that, three rejected Cons were put into the Senate, one having been quite clear that he would not be returning, and another, Verner, having been rightfully kicked to the curb for being one of the most useless MPs to ever serve.

Par for the course or not, some of us might expect what once was a serious newspaper to call this stupidity out. Christ, most Conservative opinion writers, and, by some accounts, Con MPs, are pissing allover yesterday’s gong show. That leaves you standing shoulder to shoulder with lobotomized internet trolls and bug-eyed nutters who scream at journalists for daring to ask Dear Leader questions.

So let me get this straight: Today, the NDP predictably gets skewered by the Parliamentary Press Corps (especially the Québec media) for doing a press conference to present their rookie arts MPs. This event, of course, feeds into the whole ‘inexperienced and ineffective’ meme that may just hang the NDP.

However, here we have a wonderful case of a Grand Canyon-like gap of competency for arguably one of the most important portfolios for a 21st century G8 country, and there isn’t even a mention.

I think this is going to shape up to be four years of the NDP getting embarrassed while the executive seriousness and integrity of the Harper Cabinet will go largely unscrutinized. As it was pointed out long ago, as much as Neoconservatives hated the Chretien government and would go into apoplectic rage at Lloyd Axworthy (which is ironic considering some of the decisions he made as Foreign Affairs Minister), Axworthy at least was competent enough that Madeline Albright would at least talk to him seriously. Axworthy had a consistent policy, which is why Neoconservative partisans found it particularly easy to mount criticism. I doubted quite sincerely that Condi Rice was going to talk about the complexities of international relations to Peter McKay. Now, with John Baird, I am very much convinced that the Canadian society has become immensely de-politicized and parochial.

TT: It’s called being “facetious”… I was mocking the fantastically stupid and demonstrably false trope perpetuated about the “liberal media” that right-wingers endlessly fabricate. The position of many right-wingers seems to be that if journalists aren’t furiously sucking the dicks of corporate shills while joyously yelling “Hallelujah!” they must be evil commie scumbags.

That Fast is clearly an evangelical from the Bible belt of the Fraser Valley is really neither here nor there relative to the portfolio he’s been assigned, but by the same token, it most certainly doesn’t qualify him for the position. Nor does oversight of the Parks & Rec department for a relatively smallish city in any way provide the expertise needed for what are some fairly serious international trade issues with major long-term ramifications that are currently on the table. So how exactly IS this man qualified?

Trainman: A fair comment and you’re partially right. But let me ask… would the same latitude be granted to a Liberal or NDP minister who spent his/her spare time singing in a band with his/her children at folk or Indie music festivals where drugs were not uncommonly present? Do you think that maybe some Bloggin’ Tory or other might at least make passing mention of that fact?

JKG: Hadn’t thought about the contrast with the way our so-called “liberal media” has been aggressively needling the rookie NDP MPs (because it’s fun — and best of all… dead easy!!!) while neglecting to devote one iota of effort to vetting the qualifications of certain Harper cabinet appointments that will “steer” some pretty significant economic developments in the coming years.

What I find so tiresome about the whole MSM-paranoia is just how backwards the lumpenproletariat right has it; the very global-capitalist agenda that the MSM really represents and advocates and supports is more the threat to the little-man CPC supporter than the so-called social-issue threat they constantly harp-on about.

Most large TNCs have been in the forefront of things like gender and sexual-preference equity, affirmative action, pay-equity, social tolerance – which is why the MSM mirrors that perspective. Being Corporations themselves, they reflect that agenda – which goes hand-in-hand with Globalist Capitalism.

But the right in North American constantly gets it backwards. They attack the Corporate Media because they are representative of modern social mores, while at the same time are dismissive of them if they are not capitalistic enough (as the tend to be when exposing Corporate Corruption in order to gain more media share, which is very capitalistic of them !)

And yet … it is the current Capitalist Structure and Roster that constantly seeks the lowest costs of production by exporting value-added functionality (and jobs) to the second, and increasingly, third world. Which serves to impoverish the North American middle-class decade by decade. The MSM is a necessary part of that structure. Ever hear of “convergence”?

But the very people who are being rapidly economically disenfrachised carry-on about the bias of the MSM against free-market enterprise – all while Rome Burns.

So we have the very real paradox of people voting CPC because they believe that Harper can manage the economy and jobs better than the other parties can – but it is the CPC itself (the LPC is no better …) that advocates policies that makes it easier for Corporations to move value-added production elsewhere while reducing Corporate taxes. Thus we lose both the jobs and the revenue. The only winners are the Corporations and their shareholders.

Main Street loses again. Except this time, Main Street treats Bay and Wall Street in the manner of a Prostitute to her Pimp. (She does all the hard work and lives in drudgery whilst courting danger while the Pimp lives off the proceeds in return for the dubious promise of providing protection and security. Only in reality, it is the Pimp who is manipulating the whole situation – to his, and his only, advantage.

Aenus the Younger has it right, but he’s missing a critical element that must be recognized if ordinary people are to retain/regain their human and democratic rights. That missing element is the corporate foot-soldier. The corporate foot-soldiers are the legal-judicial fraternity and the police and health authorities. These corporate foot-soldiers enable the total, and final, disenfranchisement of ordinary citizens (i.e. not just financial) that is underway in Canada.

Here’s one story that illuminates the reality of life that plagues or awaits ordinary citizens, under the thumb of our country’s increasingly authoritarian corporate governments. Tellingly, this horrifying story about a Victoria, BC woman has been reported on in the United States, but not Canada.

This woman’s story shows how the lawyers/courts/police are actively involved in stripping the elderly population of its wealth and its freedoms, and plunging them into a life of horror and suspicious death. We should all be very afraid.

This is a harbinger of things to come for the Boomer generation and their parents. The BC woman’s story is not an anomaly — check out the last link to read about similar problems in Alberta.

Hadn’t thought about the contrast with the way our so-called “liberal media”

That makes it all the more ‘meta’ (as the younguns put it). In the press coverage led by Charlie “we’re not going to bring the government down tomorrow” Angus, one of the “Rookie Arts” MPs was a singer of political punk rock band, and this man, Andrew Cash, was in the same punk band as Charlie Angus. Jane Taber, in her usual sycophantic slobbering, was all over this and this punk band background has become a point of both comedy and criticism, continuing

would the same latitude be granted to a Liberal or NDP minister who spent his/her spare time singing in a band with his/her children at folk or Indie music festivals where drugs were not uncommonly present

And yet, here you are Red, being taken to task mentioning Fast’s singing background. Honestly, the juxtaposition cannot get anymore starker than Baird attempting to heckle at the U.N. General Assembly.

* continuing the whole “how on earth can they be qualified to be MPs?!”

Can we embed videos here, Red? If so, I will try to embed that video again.

This is the youtube video the Globe and Mail dug up. It was, of course, linked to Jane Taber’s delightful article. I won’t link Taber’s article because I know you would like to have a good Friday afternoon ;).